Carl's Jr. in northern Novato demolished; Chick-fil-A set to take its place

Dump trucks and heavy construction equipment were at work Wednesday demolishing the Carl's Jr. at 35 Rowland Way in northern Novato, making way for a controversial Chick-fil-A restaurant scheduled to open at the end of June.

The Atlanta-based fast food chicken chain purchased the 0.7-acre lot in 2012 for $2.7 million, according to the chain's brokerage firm Terranomics Retail Services. The company allowed Carl's Jr. to continue its operations until Chick-fil-A was ready to open its own restaurant.

The chicken chain came under fire in 2012 when its president, Dan Cathy, made comments about gay marriage. He told the Baptist Press that the company was "guilty as charged" for backing "the biblical definition of a family."

Chick-fil-A has more than 1,700 restaurants in the U.S., including 66 in California, mostly in Southern California and the Sacramento area, according to its website. Its other Bay Area locations include Walnut Creek, Fairfield, Santa Rosa, San Jose and Sunnyvale.